


I Won't Leave You

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Reckoning [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Gen, Medical Procedures, Post-Episode: s02e19-20 Twilight of the Apprentice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:12:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8464915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka won the battle in the Temple, and this time... in this universe, she makes a choice to save the man she battled.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Barely edited; all mistakes are mine. The season of NaNoWriMo is upon me so forgive us the errors please.

It never crossed her mind to leave him. He had collapsed but she still had the Force. With all her will, she got them both to the Inquisitor ship. However, she wasn't stupid or reckless. Using Force binders on him would buy her time.

She couldn't go to the Rebels, not yet. A course for Rattatak and the small group of Nightsisters there was set before she felt the weight settle on her shoulders. Pain, unending pain and anger beat at her. She had to move to him, had to see.

That, however, nearly undid her. Inside that armor was a dying man. A man who had been dying for nearly fifteen years if she was correct. And the suit was a danger to them both. She found the stasis pod, then did all she could to remove the man from the suit externals, praying the Force kept him alive. 

+++

"You do realize you are absolutely insane," Asajj said, even as she kept a hand moving on the montrals. She hated seeing her protege so exhausted, but better she be here, than out where some of the rest of her village might choose to test the honorary Sister. Ahsoka had proven herself too many times as a valuable ally, such as in coming to their aid when the Empire moved on Dathomir.

"I have to, Asajj." The dangerous work of trying to heal that man in the brief snatches of time where she could release him from stasis before his brain functions came fully online were taking their own toll.

The elder woman scoffed, then smacked lightly when Ahsoka bit her thigh for that. "You owe no loyalty to the man he was, given what he's become."

"And if it were your true master?"

Asajj hissed at her. "You learned to fight dirty all too well, my pet." She sighed though. "Yes, for Ky, I would fight as hard as you do. But you cannot heal tissue that is dead! You need to conserve that energy, because we cannot finish the task while keeping him in stasis. Which means you, my dear little huntress, must be prepared to fight for us, if that monster turns against the hands helping you restore him."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, pushing her montrals into the gentle strokes along their stripes.

"Fine. I will sleep myself out, and then we will tackle the next phase. Organ replacement, then prosthetics. I should be able to keep him under for both parts. Two teams, so we can go from one to the next."

"As you wish, my pet. Now sleep. The armor is being crafted as we speak, to your designs."

"Should let you go to bed," Ahsoka murmured, but she was so comfortable, and Asajj's presence was a soothing balm. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a smaller Snips protested that even now, given history, but they had each fought for the other in more recent years.

Asajj laughed, and stood, keeping Ahsoka reclined in a Force grip. "I may be getting older, my little huntress, but I am still capable."

"Show off."

+++

Vader found himself in an antiseptic environment, incapable of movement, naked to the pressurized atmosphere of the surgical chamber. As his anger rose, there was a presence at his side, a masked face peering down at him.

"I said I wouldn't leave you."

It had to have been interesting, figuring out a mask that would fit her, he thought, a faint distraction from his anger at having been stripped of the suit before the hells only knew who, at her having seen what he now was, at her dragging him who knew where, and that she had actually beaten him.. "You did," he replied, though without the vocalizer to push it -- 

\-- his voice was a little more present than it was. What? 

"I am going to fix you. The prosthetics are ready. But you just had to fight off the anesthesia before my team was done." She rested a hand on his shoulder, pushing a wave of energy to him. "Sleep, brother. Let me finish breaking the chains."

"They don't work," he agreed about the anesthetics, before the rest of the words actually sort-of registered, and that wave of clear, untainted, cool Living Force rushed into him from her. It buoyed him, made things slightly better, easier... but it hurt, too. Too much of a reminder of everything he had -- risen above, gone beyond -- 

And 'sleep'? That was.. not something he did, really, anymore. 

Wait. He wasn't in the kind of pain he was so used to, what...? And why was she -- 

"Ori'vod, trust me." She stressed the words she used in place of his name. His mind had assaulted every effort to reach Anakin but accepted the kin tie claim. "You must go under so we can place the new limbs. Please."

He had already determined that he could not move -- with only the stumps, there was little to nothing he could do anyway, and she wasn't.... she knew he was not that dead man. "They work better if I'm awake for it," he managed, remembering the trouble he had had with one after he had blacked out during its replacement. 

Her shoulders tensed and then she moved to his head, resting one hand on each shoulder. He felt her center in the Force, a powerful locus of energy, and then merge herself to his signature.

"Begin. I will handle pain control," Ahsoka told the waiting med team.

Behind him, her hands on his shoulders -- he tensed, but she was only... shaking his head was one of the things he'd lost, to any real degree, no matter how much he wanted to at the way she obviously intended to handle this. Her presence was joined with his, cool and clear and as painfully unfamiliar as it was known. He glared at the other moving forms he could half make out, hate for living beings seeing him like this surging up in his chest... but they were insignificant, and his attention returned to her. She was so close, so linked with his body, that it was easier to speak through the Force than attempt to use his voice. //Unnecessary. I am accustomed to it.//

//I don't care. I do not let my family suffer. No matter that you think I should. I can do this.// It would only raise her standing with her allies, who believed pain endurance was a strength to praise and cultivate. 

"As you wish, Sister Tano," one of them answered in a sibilant voice.

If she was going to be stubborn, he was not going to argue about it with her. Not that he could do much in any case. Fine. He twitched, a little, at that sibilant tone, something about it familiar, before focusing on the procedure ahead of them. 

After each limb, they paused, checking not him, but her. Each time, she urged them on, though he felt the strain it was for her to deflect the pain into the Force. Only as the last limb was responsive to his control did she sag, and the medical team swiftly removed themselves. Live or die for her choice, Ahsoka was on her own with the restored Force user she had brought.

"There is armor, with breathing assistance," she said, showing no fear, and fighting her fatigue.

The limbs were... different. Lighter, somewhat, the legs especially were more a skeletal frame again -- but they were responsive. The Force still evaded his attempts to grasp it, but with her condition, he could probably kill her with just his hands. Could, was aware that he should, if he wished to remain Vader.

Did he? 

Anakin Skywalker was dead, that was truth. He had died with his wife and daughter (Skywalker had believed the infant a girl) for his stupidity and failure. 

The limbs weren't the only things that felt different. He frowned, bringing his right hand -- it, at least, was still familiar -- to investigate, feeling for the familiar attachments that linked the artificial organs to the control panels... 

Ahsoka stepped back, watching him. "There are only internal replacements now. I healed as much as I could, but the necrosis fought me." He could feel her bitterness at that. "So I had them replace what I failed to fix."

She had battled his body and a poison in his mind to do that much.

"You should be free of the compulsions. I'd appreciate it if you warned me of any need to commit murder."

"Compulsions?" he asked, blinking his mostly-ruined eyes at her, trying to focus on the details of her face. Wait, she had _what_?! He shifted his jaw back and forth, having long ago found that it worked for a shake of his head, and considered the possibility that he might not have to deal with being wired to so many systems. Well, he tried to consider it, at least. The thought was... so unreal that for a moment he was convinced he was hallucinating the entire thing. 

Ahsoka stepped forward and then sat on the side of the bed. "Ori'vod, you were not alone in your head. Every step I took in undoing the mess your body was, this malevolence fought me.

"I couldn't give up on you. You deserved the chance to fight back. Killing you, yes, I could have. I did think about it. As a mercy to a man and a woman I loved. But I would rather let you become a man that fixes what was made of our world." 

She squared her jaw and shoulders, appraising him. "So. You choose. Walk away, no strings. Fight me and know I will hold my promise to avenge my Master. Or stay with me, and help me bring freedom."

He frowned at her, his head tipping just barely, much as the fused bones and metal would let him, as his eyes narrowed as she spoke. He didn't particularly want to believe her, but his mind felt... different. He was... calmer. He had never been good at calm, and still was not -- and also, he was still very angry with her -- but it wasn't as... overpowering, as he was used to. 'Not alone'... 

Did he believe her? 

Did it matter if he did? He was freed of the Emperor's chains, and owed that to her actions. 

He looked at her, and wondered at that 'no strings', as well. With everything she had done, the sheer amount of work this had to have been... would she truly let him simply leave? 

Could his pride accept it, if he did? He did not -- 

Freedom. _Freedom_. 

That was... that had been a boy's desperate dream, a dead young man's goal. Did he care about it now? 

To his own frustration, the answer appeared to be 'yes'. 

"You don't have to answer right this moment," she said. "I can help you into the armor, and we can go somewhere else. The locals have already slagged the ship we arrived in, but I got good salvage price and picked up a two-seater that can take us to a neutral location, let you get used to the new systems."

She did not want him to stay here now that he was conscious. She was proud of her ties to the Nightsisters, given how they were forged in blood and death and loyalty, but she did not need the man that her master had become in the same space as her teacher-lover Asajj for any length of time. That was begging for violence.

Besides, Asajj was still very antagonistic and territorial. Ahsoka could see that ending badly, for all of them.

He considered that, knew that after this long the Emperor would have decided he was dead or turned, and would kill him -- and a powerful anger rose up in him at the thought of the million slights and insults, the harms to the men he had still cared for when nothing else was left to matter to him -- if he returned. If he was going to do anything in the galaxy, it would have to be against the Emperor. 

Which meant getting used to everything he now had, the new legs and arm and replaced organs, the odd clarity.... "The pain is... much less. I do not feel the... painkillers?" 

"You mean that poison?" She bared her teeth, all sharp and dangerous. "I would hope not. I am sorry there is any pain. I did try."

Her failure rankled on her. She had wanted to try and give back all the kindness and hope her Master had ever given her.

She slid off the bed to go acquire the armor, a much lighter working that incorporated some of the Phase I designs, but was more unique, in a slate gray. It was blank; any art should be his own to choose.

"That," he told her, "is... very obvious. There is no need to apologize." 

The idea of not being in constant pain was... dizzying. He didn't remember what that was like, what it could be. How she had done so much, even with a team working with her, baffled him, as well. 

He watched her as she moved, brought new armor towards him, and he began the process of donning it, and learning it as he did. A decent color, he thought, from what he could judge. "It was... effective. If unpleasant." 

"I still didn't like it. Any of it." Ahsoka dropped her face rather than show the boiling anger that dealing with his injuries, the damage purposefully left, had crafted in her. It was not supposed to matter so much. He was a murderous …

… puppet. Anakin might be dead, her Skyguy lost, but this Vader had been a construction of a sick, twisted man.

"Try living with it," he retorted, as he busied himself with the armor. It was much, much lighter, it would be simpler to move with and use. That, he approved of. 

He still could not reach out into the Force, but her anger roiled through what he could sense, what he could see. She was not trying to avoid it, or push it away.... not as he would have expected, but oddly steadying. 

"Let's see how you do living without it," Ahsoka said, once she had the anger banked again and could look over at him. Something must have shown on his face, because she made a noise. "What? I told you I was no Jedi. Neither they nor the Sith understand that emotions exist for reasons, as part of the Force, and shouldn't be amplified, glorified, or denied… merely accepted."

She moved to assist him with the torso portions, her fingers nimble and knowing in how to make the armor come together swiftly and accurately. "While the helmet contains most of the environment controls, the torso armor will function as an external breathing assist, should the other solutions we employed give you any trouble. I tried to create redundancies that wouldn't add too heavily to the overall weight.

"After all, if you stay, I'd rather not have to waste Force energy to carry you if you go down. I get tired of hauling _beskar'gam_ -clad people around, after all," she said, forcing a half-tease into the words.

That choice of phrasing was blatantly and obviously deliberate, and he still found himself making an intrigued noise. How would she be around anyone that called armor by that word, when Mandalore was not worth speaking of and almost all of the cloned soldiers they had once known had been long reduced to the stormtroopers of the Empire? The information about the torso armor was a definite reassurance, given just how difficult keeping his seared lungs and throat working could be. 

"You didn't think I was going to let the Empire swallow up all my brothers, did you?" Ahsoka gave a patented smirk at that, but there was pain in her eyes too. "I found them, some. Ones who the chip failed on. Ones that could be carved out of their units, taken and helped to recover.

"And then, there was the one that saved my life, when the order went live," she added, even as she wondered how in hell she was going to explain this to Rex. Her one message of 'I am alive, have faith in me' hadn't actually filled him in on her decisions.

"...so it's been you, behind some of those losses," he replied, uncertain at first if he approved of that or wanted to strangle her for it. But then... what the Emperor had done to them was despicable (and had earned him one of his near-deaths, early on). It was good that she had freed some of the -- the _vod'e_ , he reminded himself -- from that. 

Wait. One that had saved her? "Good. And... who?" 

She met his gaze, having moved in front of him to help settle the shoulder pieces. "My Captain. Because he had listened to Fives, and followed up… too late to save everyone, but in time to be there and get me out of it." She was searching his face, looking for his awareness and reaction to both Rex's salvation and the identity of her savior.

Her Captain. Their Captain. _Rex_. For a moment, he lost track of her words, but he heard them anyway, and -- what? 

His head tilted, very slightly, as 'listened to Fives' tried to spark a memory... not just because she expected it to, but -- there was something. Something... his eyes narrowed, as he tried to chase down the memory. What...Ray shields, came in a flash, the sound/feel of them. Solid presence beside him, a frantic voice outside. 

Dark eyes, dark hair, clone face, tattoo on his right temple. Fives. 

Fives saying... he'd thought it nonsense, but -- truth, he knew now. Complete truth, and Fox had -- 

He hadn't remembered. He had _forgotten_ this, all of it. 

He didn't forget _anything_. So he had been **made** to forget. 

Rage boiled up through him, hot as the lava that had crept up to him as he burned on the gravel... 

She didn't flinch from the rage this time. It still felt heavy around her but it also felt more like it was truly him. It didn't feel pushed by outside forces.

"You couldn't remember. What happened with Fives, because of Tup. Ori'vod, I've done my best for those I could steal away, but it was all too few. If for nothing else, join me to avenge them?"

He hummed a low, voiceless noise of agreement. He hadn't remembered. No, he hadn't been _allowed_ to remember that he knew something that would have tipped the scales on his long-ago decision. Would have warned him that nothing the Emperor said could be believed, would have -- 

He stopped thinking on that, trying to pull his rage back into himself, to breathe through and use it. After several long moments, he said simply, "Yes," to what she asked. 

That... that was something he could and would do. Something he would even enjoy doing, much as he enjoyed anything, now. 

"Good." Bail would have a litter of loth kittens if he knew, but she had insisted that she have free rein on these judgment calls. "Come on if you can walk. We should go before someone thinks I'm weak enough to challenge."

She was fairly certain Asajj would have opinions on that, but she didn't want to push her luck.

He rumbled at that, displeased at the thought, and set to finishing putting on the mask and helm. They would be...less needed, than the prior ones, but even with everything she had done, he was aware of the need for a sealed environment. That he could move his arms freely enough to work them himself -- that was the startling part. "Then we will go." 

Ahsoka moved to depressurize the room, then removed her own mask and protective suit. That done, she led him out, head high and radiating bold confidence.

"We're on Rattatak, to put your mind at ease on where you are. Neither Empire nor other powers have claimed it yet."

"Rattatak," he repeated, before nodding slightly. That was far enough out, remote enough, and little known enough that he actually believed her disappearance with him could have gone without the Emperor's ability to trace. Or at least, to send anyone after him. 

"Hellhole and a half, but it's useful." She guided him to the new ship she had bargained for, while pulling on the vestige of a link she had with Asajj to mind, throwing a wordless gratitude and farewell at the older woman. She did not want to get into an involved goodbye; it wasn't their way, and Asajj would probably prefer she get this man far away, quickly.

"That applies to several planets I can think of," he replied, running through a breathing exercise to attempt to clear out his mind and the Force-suppressants still undercutting his ability to function. The sooner that was done, the sooner he was no longer detached from the 'sense' that worked best for him, the sooner he might have a vague chance at... calm. 

Ahsoka felt an exasperated but affectionate brush over her thoughts, and half smiled for that. Trust Asajj to know just how to respond to give her a boost for what she now faced. 

She reached out with the Force to open the ship hatch, guiding the man aboard. "Ori'vod, we're going to need to find a new name for you. Given the ideas I have, what do you think of 'Reckoning' as a code name? Then you can choose whatever for your personal name." She headed straight for the cockpit, sweeping her senses through the ship to be certain she didn't have any unwelcome stowaways.

He hadn't considered a name, but she was entirely correct. He would need a new one. 

He wanted nothing to do with the name _that being_ had hung on him before sending him to be bathed in blood and death, but the name he had been born with belonged to a man fifteen years dead. He wanted nothing to do with it, either. 

Her suggestion of a code-name, a call-name, was a good one, and what she had suggested. He turned it around a few times in his mind, and finally -- about the time they reached the cockpit and he had to take the second seat -- he replied, "It suits me, yes." 

"I thought so." She'd helped name several shinies in the War, helping them find the name that fit who they wanted to be. Mostly by goofing off with them, pulling them into camaraderie with her as easily as she breathed.

She sometimes missed being that free-spirited.

Now, she busied herself with take-off and finding coordinates for somewhere remote, with at least moderate facilities so she could supply them through his period of adjustment. She contemplated Rex, knew he was going to need to be informed… and probably want to be involved. That needed to be her focus before she took them into hyperspace.

"If you do decide to cut off on your own, do me one favor? Don't let it build to the point we wind up fighting over it, alright?" She glanced over at him. "I don't agree with anything that has brought you to this point, but I also am convinced you were fed lies and stupidity in ways that made it inevitable. On both sides of manipulators," she added, not holding the Jedi blameless at all in his Fall. "I am stating, here and now, the only payment I will accept for helping you is your willingness to not make it a fight. Deal?"

He shifted sideways to look at her, to see -- in something like color, if not entirely -- the look on her face and in her lekku (when had she changed so much?), as he evaluated her words. 

'Fed lies and stupidity' was... a fairly accurate summation, he decided, and he hummed another quiet agreement. "You, I do not wish another fight against." 

"That's pretty good. I'd hate to break what I helped fix," she told him, looking at him with the sly slide of brash confidence that had been her trademark before she became the serious Fulcrum. "Are you going to be alright if I invite Rex to join us? He's probably out of his _buy'ce_ by now over what the _haran_ I've gone and done.

"If you'd rather he not, I'll just update him enough to keep him from stubbornly coming to find me."

So brash, even now. Or was that something she was deliberately presenting, because it would have been expected, before? 

Whichever. It did not matter.

Was he going to be... he just stared at her for several moments. No, he was not going to be 'alright' with it -- but he also would not ask Ahsoka to keep the man away. It would be what it would be. He turned both hands palm-up for a moment, spreading them and then putting them back on his thighs. 

She reached over briefly, hand on the vambrace with enough pressure to come through… she had that down to a science after years of coping with people who lived in armor… and then focused on the task at hand.

Once she had them well settled into their course, with the hyperdrive jump plotted and ready, she pushed back from the console and moved to patch her comm gear into the ship, using its power to boost her encryption. She didn't even pretend to try and figure out the time on Seelos; he would answer even if he was asleep.

He shifted slightly away from the relay, watching her work with the ship's instruments and her own gear, wishing -- again -- for the ability to shake his head. He had no idea how to interpret her actions any longer, he was too used to the Imperial Court, to needing to weigh every word multiple times... but she had always been bluntly plainspoken. Impertinent and impudent, but plainspoken. 

The suppressants were wearing off, slowly letting the Force come back to him, and he pulled at it, trying to draw it deeper into himself. The Dark flowed easily as ever, but... for the first time in a very, very long time, along with the searing/freezing rush of the Dark came the cool warmth of the Light Side, and he nearly lost hold of both in his surprise. 

It took several moments, but Rex popped up in the display, blinking and his voice tense as he asked, "Sir?" 

"Hey, Rexter," she said, voice gentle and warm for him, never mind that even in holo, he would see the deep-set fatigue. No one knew her as well as he did. "Working with a new ally is pulling me off course for a bit. I am sorry it's taken me so long to get back in touch with you.

"The question is… are you interested in helping him get used to an unfamiliar set of _beskar'gam_ , since I decided the other set was far too heavy and recognizable?" Even encrypted, she would not outright state who it was… but Rex was a damned smart man.

He watched the holo as -- oh. Rex was _old_ , old in the way he didn't have to look at with the remaining soldiers of the First, old in ways that sank something with several blades deep into his chest. He should not be that old. Anger pulsed through his chest again, as the hologram displayed a man very blatantly attempting to keep from giving someone that outranked him a thoroughly deserved chewing-out. 

Rex managed to bite back the first several iterations of profanity that wanted to spill from his mouth, his inclination to tell his absolutely insane mate that she was out of her mind, and an emphatic 'hell no'. 

But.. 'new ally'? Ahsoka would be dead a thousand times over before she would serve the Dark Side, so... had she somehow, actually, managed to drag some scrap of decency out of that obscenity that remained of his General? Was that actually possible, even for her? 

He had to know. "It sure was that," he agreed, "and... I'd rather be there than not." 

Ahsoka let out her breath, even as she knew there would be a private reprimand from him later for her recklessness. He was the one to keep her grounded to reality, after all. "Alright." She keyed the location they were going to through the comm, sending them to him. "I'd rather not have anyone else aware of this right now, but I would certainly appreciate you being there.

"If you can find my spare parts for 'sabers, can you bring them? I think I stored them in our spare blaster parts trunk this time." She was going to try and convince her ally that no, really, red lightsabers were a bad idea.

"What, _again_?" Rex asked, before the other possible explanation crossed his mind and his mouth tightened against wanting -- again -- to tell her off. "All right, I'll find them," he told her as he unscrambled the location. Oh, getting _there_ was going to be such a treat, but then, what else was new? " _K'oyacyi_ ," he told her, reaching to click the comm off. 

" _K'oyacyi,_ " she returned before they were parted, again, even in words. She closed her eyes, mind reaching toward him… but that only let her know he was alive, for he was not a Force user. When she opened her eyes and moved back to the console, she studiously did not look at the man with her, instead angling to make the hyperspace jump. Then, maybe, she could sleep off the effort of helping heal him.

She did not look towards him, which saved him from having to respond to her and her impudent assorted ways. 

He was still far from accustomed to this situation where he could not feel his body dying with every moment. Where the skin seemed to feel... almost whole, and his lungs were, if only partially, under the control of his own mind again. Even in his most ambitious dreams of rebuilding the suit and himself, he had not dare think of this much. 

Once they actually had hyperspace, Ahsoka stood from the pilot's chair. "You don't have to stay in here; second cabin is all yours. I don't plan to use this ship as a supply craft. Please pay attention to the fact you do need to eat; the dispensers have varying semi-liquid choices with you in mind. You might try sleeping yourself."

She paused in leaving him alone to rest a hand on his shoulder. "Ori'vod… thank you, for going along with me, so far."

"You should have killed me," he told her, "but I am... not displeased that you did not. It will be.... interesting, now." 

Eating. Something other than the vitapaste? That was... an odd thought. "Go. You are exhausted." 

"You know, that might be the first time you and Ventress ever agreed on anything," Ahsoka said, before she went to find her berth, and much needed sleep.

He swung the chair enough to glare after that retreating lekku, but kept his peace... and swung the chair back around so that he could watch unending shifting blur of hyperspace. The _witch_ had survived, and had something to do with his -- not his, Dark take everything -- with Ahsoka? 

With his own survival? 

That was even _less_ a pleasant thought, and one he swiftly pushed away.


End file.
